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Higher education

Talk to other parents whose children are preparing for university on our Higher Education forum.

Original poster

still stuck on insurance offer- Exeter or Manchester

35 replies

greyvix · 31/03/2013 15:42

DS is still insure on which insurance offer to accept for economics- Exeter AAA or Manchester AAB. He should get AAA (or hopefully A*AA so that he can go to Nottingham as first choice). Manchester is obviously the safer option (or Cardiff which is offering the same). Unfortunately, we haven't managed to visit Manchester, so no idea what it's like, though I have heard good things. And Professor Brian Cox is there!

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CardinalRichelieu · 31/03/2013 15:49

Depends what sort of place he would rather live in - big northern city, lots of bars, shops, clubs etc or largish market town, obvs still pubs/shops/restaurants but less going on than Manchester. If he is into sports, being outside, likes the sea etc. then Exeter would be better bet. But it would have been too quiet for me. If Notts is his first choice then he would probably prefer Manchester. It's got a perfectly good reputation, equal to Notts I would say.

parched · 31/03/2013 15:59

Your insurance choice should always be a lower offer than your firm. If the firm and insurance choice have the same grades and you don't get them, you'll end up in Clearing with no place. Also look at what scholarships are on offer at each institution - they often don't promote them enough.

eatyourveg · 31/03/2013 16:19

If he's really not fussed about which one to choose I'd look at costs of halls and then typical rents for 2nd year. The courses can't be identical - look at the modules - then see if one place leans more towards what he's after?

Original poster
greyvix · 31/03/2013 16:57

Thanks for the very speedy responses!

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Manchesterhistorygirl · 31/03/2013 17:02

I'm at manchester, doing history as you can guess, but I also come across economics UG as we can do each others modules and they seem very happy. (For example Industrial Revolution, which is very early economic theory heavy for my liking, but the economics students seem to all be enjoying it.)

Manchester has the biggest combined campus in Europe and has loads on all the time. The student experience would be vastly different up here than Exeter. Also worth looking at are the destinations for graduates. Dh and I were just talks about the bat race and I mentioned that the likes of BNY Mellon are always on campus.

If you want to pm me then please do.

senua · 31/03/2013 20:59

Manchester is too big, Exeter is too small. Cardiff is the goldilocks solution!
DD has had a good time there. Cardiff is small enough that most things are within walking distance but important enough, since it is a capital city, to have a busy, buzzing vibe.
Forget Brian Cox, Cardiff has Doctor Who.

boomting · 02/04/2013 01:56

I'm at Manchester, doing politics but have done a couple of economics modules.

I'd definitely recommend Manchester. I know it seems awfully big, but you get used to it very quickly. Brian Cox is an irrelevance to you - he teaches (I believe) two physics undergrad lectures (not modules - lectures) per year, so he's pretty much an irrelevance to physics students too. If he wants sports then Manchester Uni has 40+ sports societies, and 3 large sports centres including a swimming pool built for the Commonwealth Games.

One very big advantage of Manchester is that they guarantee accommodation to insurance applicants. Exeter does not, so he could very well find himself in some god-awful shared house away from other freshers.

Manchesterhistorygirl · 02/04/2013 16:59

Boom did you do Britain in the Global Context? I'm just finishing that for this semester.Grindo you have Tom for any of your seminars?

Sorry for thread hijack.

Original poster
greyvix · 02/04/2013 21:16

Thanks for the info. We know Exeter as DD is there, which puts him off. He wants to do his own thing!

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serin · 03/04/2013 22:02

Manchester also has the National Cycling centre/velodrome.

nelsonscolumn · 04/04/2013 12:23

My DD is at Manchester doing PPE and absolutely loves both the uni and the city. It's also a cheap place to live compared to where we live at least.

boomting · 04/04/2013 20:38

Didn't do that one. Is that Tom H? If so I did have him once - he was a great tutor :)

Manchesterhistorygirl · 04/04/2013 21:33

No, Tom S. I luffs him.

RussiansOnTheSpree · 05/04/2013 11:04

Exeter has the best reputation for economics out of all the universities mentioned. There is also currently an oversupply of student accommodation so I'd say it was unlikely anyone would end up in a grotty student shared house unless that's what they actually wanted to do.

BeckAndCall · 09/04/2013 08:21

Depends on the type of uni he wants - Exeter is a self contained campus, Manchester isn't. If he chose Nottingham in the first place, Exeter is more like that - although if your DD is there, you know that. We, too face the problem of DD2 not wanting to go to somewhere her siblings have been so ruling out top choices!

On the grades, it's not necessarily the case that holding an insurance of the same offer as the firm puts you automatically in clearing - it will depend on the take up for each place and course on the day. Plus, AAA is lower than the firm offer anyway. I would have thought, with the ABB rule (where unis are allowed to take any student with ABB or above without it impacting there control numbers), he would stand a good chance of being accepted with slightly lower grades in any case. But that would be a risk factor.

Original poster
greyvix · 09/04/2013 21:41

Thanks to everyone. I know that Exeter is really good for economics. Is it better than Nottingham? They are all good unis, and time is running out! BeckAndCall, where is DD2 applying?

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BeckAndCall · 10/04/2013 07:33

It's the usual suspects, greyvix - Nottingham, Exeter, Warwick, Birmingham. York and Bristol are the ones where her brother and sister are so Re off her list (probably). But it's for science subjects, so not necessarily the same criteria as your DS.

Strangely, all three of mine have hated Manchester, for some reason. Not the course, but the place. They just didn't like the city feel of the uni, despite the great club scene. And yet I love it personally!

Mine have also included distance as a criteria - DD2 knows she wants to be relatively close to home (3hours or less) so isn't applying to Durham, for example. That said, DD1 used the same criteria but then fell in love with York and went anyway!

Anyway, I bet it won't matter for your DS as he'll get his firm offer anyway!

senua · 10/04/2013 10:14

They just didn't like the city feel of the uni

DD was the same. The University (or, at least, her bit of it) is plonked on the Oxford Road, an grey, unglamourous commuter route. It doesn't feel like academe.

Manchesterhistorygirl · 10/04/2013 10:17

It's not a grey commuter route it's actually called 'student corridor' and runs directly into fallowfield and Didsbury which are the main student living ares so its ridiculously easy to get the bus in and out for lectures. Busiest bus road in Europe. Grin

senua · 10/04/2013 10:47

Busiest bus road in Europe

Erm, that's sort of my point.

Anyway, DD doesn't need a bus in Cardiff: university, accommodation, nightlife, shopping, jobs are all in walking distance.

Lilymaid · 10/04/2013 10:57

Greyvix - from DS1 is an economist and went to Nottingham (turned down Exeter) for BSc and MSc - graduated 2008 and 2011. Nottingham is very well regarded for Economics and has a very strong and well regarded (internationally) department.
I think Exeter has moved up the ratings quite a lot recently and it gets candidates with good A levels, but I don't think it is quite in the same league for economics.
I say this as an Exeter graduate who had a fabulous time as a student there!
And as far as choosing between Manchester and Exeter, it really comes down to which environment DS prefers - large city or small city, though, fwiw, DS1 thinks that Manchester is better for economics than Exeter.

Original poster
greyvix · 10/04/2013 19:03

Thanks everyone. I have three DDs who have already done the university thing- well one is still at Exeter, and the other two went to Exeter and Sussex. The girls all did English/ Media, which is my comfort zone (English teacher). I just don't know anything about economics!

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boomting · 11/04/2013 18:59

The Curry Mile is anything but grey! Whitworth Hall is very pretty too (the building that looks like Hogwarts), and there are a couple of nice parks along the route to halls too.

I like it - but perhaps that's because it is, in many ways, home to me.

samuelwhiskers · 11/04/2013 19:17

If you look on some of the rating tables, Cardiff is better than Manchester for economics and better than Exeter also if you take out job prospects ( always pulls Cardiff ratings down as Wales has a hard time for grad jobs). However, Cardiff is a Russell Group uni while Exeter is not. I have known 5 close friends whose DC went to Cardiff, also my DC who did finance and all got grad trainee jobs very quickly. Cardiff is also very high on research and also lovely small, reasonably cheap city to live.

BeckAndCall · 11/04/2013 19:48

Exeter is RG, samuel. They joined, along with Durham and York, last year. The group decided to admit new members to allow for the fact that ratings and strengths have changed since the group was originally formed in 1994 ( and to allow for the fact that Durham just didn't turn up to the original meeting and therefore were not in the original group!). And RGis self selecting anyway, so there may not be huge differences between any of them and say, Sussex or UEA.

I'd say that individual subject ratings are more important than just being in the RG, or not.

Anyway, all of the unis being by greyvix's DS are RG, in any case.